There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether NATO—an alliance started after World War II—is still relevant in today’s world.  The answer is a simple and unequivocal “yes.” It is.

The meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Helsinki this week comes on the heels of a turbulent NATO summit that saw the American president butting heads with the other European leaders. In an era where Trump seems to be combative with allies and collegial with adversaries, the world will be watching attentively.

Imagine that a Democrat—Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, any Democrat—had been elected president in 2016.

It is a century since the execution of Russia’s last tsar and his family after the revolution that established the Soviet Union, a massacre that still raises questions today.